Read-Along
I found a website with some free printable rebus stories. Knowing how my age group has been skewing younger and younger since the weather has turned nice, I didn't think the kids would be able to handle following along on paper and reading the rebus together that way, so I adapted one called I Like Summer for the iPad using clipart. The age group was a bit strange, in that one child could read and the rest could not, so the reader kind of stole the spotlight away from the other kids, but it still worked well having the rebus images come up on the screen one at a time and asking the kids to call them out.
Making a List
We made a list of words that begin with S. I had to give clues to prompt the kids, and again, only the girl who could read gave me any answers. (It turned out that some of the others got the schedule mixed up and thought this was our preschool story time, which made a lot of sense.)
Bag of Verbs
I have been using the verbs we act out as a chance to have various impromptu discussions. This time, we talked about animals that jump. The quietest little boy in the group who says nothing most weeks came up with kangaroo, and I nearly exploded with joy, I was so thrilled! This is my favorite part of the story time because it introduces kids who don't read to the way new words look and sound, and the readers can usually
Read-Aloud
We read Lionel in Summer by Stephen Krensky. It's a pretty tame set of stories about how one boy spends his summer, but the kids seemed to enjoy it despite the lack of serious action. They didn't have much to say about it, which is always disappointing, but I think if I start pulling together some discussion questions for when I do have some older kids, that will be a helpful way to start conversations about the books in the future.
Drawing Activity
I adapted this idea from Pinterest into a simple coloring sheet. I asked the kids to write or draw what they wanted to do this summer. Most of them didn't understand that idea and just colored.
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